King James Biblewith Catholic Commentary by George Leo Haydock

Isaiah 15

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The Divine judgments about to come upon the Moabites

1 The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence;

2 He is gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, the high places, to weep: Moab shall howl over Nebo, and over Medeba: on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard cut off.

3 In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly.

4 And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh: their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz: therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him.

5 My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.

6 For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.

7 Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows.

8 For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim, and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.

9 For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood: for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.

G Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

Ver. 1.Moab. Which would be visited in three years’ time (c. xvi. 14.) either by Ezechias, or by Sennacherib, though history be silent on this head. The Moabites had been very crue. , Amos i. and ii. — Night. Suddenly. C. — Their misery was so much the greater. W. — Ar. The capital. C.

Ver. 2.House. Prot. “he is come up to Baith,” (H.) or the royal family is gone to the temple of their idol, Chamos, to lament. S. Jer. M. C. — Shaven. As in mourning. Jer. xlviii. 37.

Ver. 4.Itself. Every one shall deplore his own distress.

Ver. 5.My. A charitable heart will grieve for the misfortune of an enemy. W. — I shall join in the general lamentations, though Moab has always been so great an enemy of Israel. C. — Sept. “the heart of Moab cries in itself to Segor.” H. — We will retire thither. Chal. — Bars. Princes. Prot. “his fugitives shall,” &c. — Heifer. Strong and ungovernable. Heb. “to Heglath and to Shelishia for,” &c. though we may as well adhere to the Vulg. Sept. &c.

Ver. 6.Nemrim. Or Nemra, (Num. xxxii. 3.) to the north of Segor. C. — The country around hence became barren. S. Jer.

Ver. 7.Willows. That is, as some say, the waters of Babylon; others render it a valley of the Arabians, (Ch.) or “of crows,” to which their bodies will be exposed. C. lvii. 6.

Ver. 8.Cry. Of iniquity, or rather of grief.

Ver. 9.Dibon. Sept. &c. read, “Dimon,” which signifies, “blood.” I will give it a better claim to this appellation. — Lion. Nabuchodonosor. C. — Sept. “I will bring the Arabs up on Dimon, and will take away the seed of Moab, and Ariel, and the remnant of Adama.” H.